Fallout: Nashville
by TMOTTCrowd
Summary: This is a collaboration between me and another author and personal friend Fennis Ursai, the story is centered in Nashville, which has become a concrete island. Each chapter begins with Fennis' character, Clayton James Hargrove, and will end with mine, Eric Delbin. Each shift in POV is marked with a line break. We do not own anything in Fallout, please R


Chapter 1

I've heard stories from some of the ghouls about Nashville, that it was filled with music and stars. From what I see, the place is filled with nothing but garbage and radiated water. Heh, I've dealt with worse. There are some who look down on my profession, they say I'm grave-robbing, looting from the deceased, yet none of them have the guts to say it to my face. What those pomp and snooty pricks don't understand, that's just what it takes to survive. I've never lived the easy road, I'm not gonna change course now.

* * *

Sirens began blaring twenty seconds ago, but the guards were coming in ten seconds before the siren started to wail. I wasn't sure which of them were aware of what the Overseer was doing, but I had a feeling I couldn't try to convince them to my side of the story. How did he keep it a secret for so long? There wasn't time for me to think on that now, I just had to worry about escaping this place. With my body starting to shake from fear, I turned a corner and dashed through an open doorway. Our benevolent Overseer had already taken whoever lived in this place, so it was vacant, besides from the noise of the whole vault going nuts.

"Come on out Eric! There isn't any use in running; we just want to talk." The Overseer himself was hunting for me, and it didn't take a genius to know that he had no plans with really talking with me. If only I could just find a way out of here.

As another patrol of guards ran through the hall, I left the room and began sneaking through the halls in search of my way out of this hell.

* * *

The waters are all calm today, that is usually a good sign of loot. The spirits of the waters must have a place for me in there plans this day. These are the rough days though. I was planning to run a skeleton crew, but my two boat hands are missing. Laurence is most likely drunk, and Sabrina is probably spending time with her friends. Friends…that is a tough word for someone like me…not enough time for me to keep up with people…even less that, people I care for.

1 man crew today is fine with me; less distraction and more time think about progressing this simple, honest job. It's been a while since I've focused on the rougher days…the days I'd wake up not knowing if someone would try to pull a fast one on me. The raiders I used to run with were ruthless. We were savage and tough, but we always got paid. The urge to kill comes back to me, rapids of rage and bloodlust try to knock down the dam of my sanity. I needed this solo trip to calm the boiling waters.

This place is so peaceful, in a chaotic hell hold. It gets harder to see the good in this place, but I have to for my sanity's sake. Not much farther to the tip from Frank, my eyes gotta stay sharp.

They were getting closer to me, closing in on my location. If I didn't act quickly, then it was going to be over for me before it even began and I did not plan on

* * *

letting the Overseer get away with experimenting on us like lab rats! Instead of sneaking around, I began to run as though my life depended on it. The Overseer always told us that to even get close to the exit was to doubt his leadership, now I knew it was his way of trying to keep us penned in.

If not for a friend slipping me an old map of the Vault, I would have been dead a long time ago. Of course, I had only gotten a few moments to look it over before a guard found it and tore it up in front of me. Things weren't looking too good for me though, I needed to make a decision quickly as I came to an intersection at the end of the hall. Right or left will determine life or death, just what I needed at this time.

"I think he's over here!" A Guard shouted from the left and my decision was made for me, right it is. Here's to not getting hunted down like a dog.

* * *

There's a smell in the air of death…I can't tell if it's pre or post death…but I smell it fresh as the stench of the waters. It's so maddening, the beast inside me wants to leap into the waters and hunt down anything that swims. The shark tooth on my axe looks ready to feel blood on it again. "Don't worry, I'll feed you soon enough." I need to find time to go hunting mires and sharks again.

Well I'm here…but there is nothing here…I know better than to listen the Frank when he's been drinking. That damn ghoul is so full of shit, I can smell it on him most days. There's nothing here…there **IS** nothing here, maybe this is one of those half baked leads about an underwater vault again. Damn it! I'm never listening to that damn drunk again, it's hard enough to try to find much in these waters without a topside landmark, let alone without a skeleton crew…damn it. If I just listened to my gut I'd be off hunting today.

* * *

They had found me, which meant I only had seconds to find the exit before I found myself with more holes than I was born with. Opening another door I found it, my salvation from certain death, the door to the vault. It was a massive thing with inches and inches of hardened steel, able to withstand any kind of blast. Racing over to the controls my hands found it easy to get the machine to start, but just as I did so a bullet whizzed just past my head.

"What the hell are you doing Eric?" The Overseer shouted; his pudgy little face angrier than I had ever seen him before. He could rot in hell for all I cared. There was no stopping the door from opening, but as I ran over to the door, I saw that water was coming in from the cracks.

"What the…"

It seemed the Overseer was more aware of what was going on before me. "Everyone get out now!" Looking back I saw that our generous leader was already out of the room, with the door locked. That bastard just left three of his guards to die with me. Was he that insane? Thousands of gallons of water crashing over me, knocking to the floor and almost unconscious, my pip boy already warning of radiation levels, as if it couldn't be even more of a dangerous situation.

All my life I've been called a nerd and a loser, but I knew I had to use whatever little muscle I had to swim my way to safety. Ignoring the tingling feeling the water was giving me, I swam my way out of the vault, seeing the surface and going as fast as I could, unsure whether the guards were following or not. Like a submarine, I burst through the water gasping for air and trying to find the first thing to grab on. "Holy hell!"

* * *

Movement…I can't stand it! I leapt in with axe in hand, diving at the movement, one went up, three bodies left. "Cleave them!" Before I could think of the voice in my head, my axe was already cutting through the first throat with a quick neck chop. The serrated edge will take care of his last grasp of life. The quick rip of my axe tears through flesh like knife through soft bone, soon to end the body's life. An overhead chop into the skull of the next poor soul, his eyes showing he hadn't seen it coming, I'll have to clean my axe better when I resurface. Where is number three!? It will not escape me!

Frantic movements to look for this body, I must find it! I will find it! My axe is not full yet! My body swiftly flowing through the waters could not find this last body. It must have surfaced…I must get it.

* * *

My first clue that something was wrong was the splash I heard when I came up. It seemed to happen thirty feet to my left at the other end of the pool, which seemed odd to me. When blood began to color the water scarlet, my heart began to pound like wildfire. From what my pip boy was telling me, I was taking in radiation, which explained why the water felt so weird.

Taking deep breaths, I started to swim over to other side of the room where I could climb out. From what I could see, this edge is what's left of the floor of this room, with the door to the vault being in some kind of basement below me. The fear was still taking its toll on me, and I had to find some way of defending myself. A soft clink was my answer to everything, as it seemed. Looking back to the pool was a ten millimeter pistol, with blood all around it. As I took a hold of it, I felt it's weight in my hands, my body starting to tremble as I took aim at the water where bodies began to surface. Two guards, the third must have drowned back in the vault and whatever else is down there hadn't come back up yet.

"Come on you son of a bitch…just try me…come on!" I yelled, hoping to instill courage into myself as I tried to remember if water made a gun useless.

* * *

There! There is the third he is trying to surface. I will not let him make it. My body swims closer to him; I'm going to drag him under before he makes it!

The man made his arm up out of the water before I made it within range. He took in a breath before I took him under. His gasp for air became half air and half drink of irradiated water. My axe made its mark to the back of his head. I drag his body with me back towards my boat. I might not have sharks, but I have money to make. I see the last body I forgot had submerged first. I looked at my axe, it is not greedy, it is feasted. My hand moves to sheath my axe and bump it's leg as I pass by.

I have three bodies in what appears to be police uniforms, without badges or any sign of what affiliation they are from. Maybe the New Confederate Riders…definitely not Enclave or Brotherhood, no newblood, in this area that I know of. "Ahh" My gasp for air is not ruined like this poor soul. His body is heavy but I still managed to get him into the boat, but the other two are blocked from my view, the living one must be on the other side of my boat.

* * *

Looking at the man, I didn't know what to think at first, but I knew what he had done. He was some kind of monster, but I wasn't sure what to do, without realizing my finger squeezed the trigger and a shot rang out through the room, hitting the wall a few feet from the killer. "Shit!" I tried to crawl away, keeping my gun still aimed at him.

"D-don't move! The next one will go right through your skull!" Who was I kidding? I couldn't make that shot even if I wasn't shaking. I was just some small fry, barely even five foot seven, not a lot of muscle, and some black hair smoothed back, now wild and free. This guy was a killer, and I knew I was the next victim. "Please…just let me go…"

* * *

Shit…he was behind me. I turned to face him as the bullet missed me. If he was trained that would have hit me...hmm. I sunk back into the waters to grab the other two bodies and throw them on my boat. I waited in the water watching the man from behind my boat to see what he was going to do. He was trembling and afraid, but was the victim in this situation, and my axe no longer thirsts.

* * *

I had no idea what to do, this guy just kept doing what he was doing, like I wasn't even there. "Hey! Are you even listening to me?" When I pulled the trigger again, it just clicked and I wasn't sure what happened. "What the…" Looking at it from all over, it looked like the shell casing had jammed inside the gun. How does that even happen to a gun? Weren't they designed so that that doesn't happen?

"Crap! Come on, come on, work you son of a bitch!" I said, waving it around as though the shell would somehow fall out of it. "Why won't you just come out already?"

* * *

I laughed at the foolish man. "It's jammed, not surprising to me. I can offer you a deal, since that gun is no use to you at its current state, I can repair it in exchange for information. That sounds fair?" I had grabbed the bodies onto the boat before my sentence ended. I felt bad for this person; he looked weak and surely wasn't used to fighting, especially how to handle a gun, rule one in this world.

* * *

This guy had to be insane. What information did he want? Of course, without a working gun, I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to defend myself in whatever Hell I just landed in. Looking over at him and his boat, I had an idea.

"For my information, I want more than just my gun fixed. If I tell you the information you want, then…then I want to come with you." It's easier to fight the devil you know than the devil you don't, and I needed to know more about this place.

* * *

I looked him over. "Well what good are you to me? Other than companionship I see no uses for you on my boat." I had already begun climbing onto my boat and trying to find my rad aways.

* * *

Damn it, he had a point there. I was basically useless in a fight, especially if I didn't know how to fix a jam in my gun. Looking through my brain I had to find something that would make me useful. After frantically searching for a skill that could make myself valuable to him, I finally remembered something. "I know computers! The Overseer tried to kill me because of the things I found on his encrypted files. Any tech that I can't work I can learn how to, and I bet you're a guy that has a lot of tech he can't use. How are you supposed to sell that junk if it can't even work huh? You need me, if you want to make more money."

Ha! No way he could deny me now that he knows what I can do for him and his business. "Just test me, come on I'll knock your friggin socks off with what I know."

* * *

I began my rad away injection. "a wiz kid huh? Well it this was an above ground operation you'd prove useful, but seeing how you're in irradiated water, I'd say your common sence ain't for shit." I stared at the man seeing if the con could outway the pros. "Well, come on, get on the damn boat and pop a rad away injection"

* * *

Little did I realize that the Geiger counter on my Pip Boy was ticking away like crazy and I could almost feel the energy draining from my body. Quickly I swam to the boat, got on and got some Rad-Away in me, guess there was a lot more radiation in the outside than I thought. Looking over at the bodies I almost couldn't believe I actually lived with these people. "I…I went out with his daughter a couple times." Looking over at the one in the far left of the boat. Why did I even say that?

"Um…so where are we going?" I asked him, sitting down in the boat.

* * *

My muscles were barely sore from that encounter but I rolled my shoulders anyways. "Where's that gun of yours? I promised you I'd fix it, and if you're riding back with me, you damn well better have a gun on you. Never know when one of them gators or bull shark will get testy. Hell if we're really unlucky, damn 'lurks will rush us."

* * *

"Great...now I know there are FOUR deadly predators around me now." I said as I handed him the gun, hoping that my luck was going to turn out for the better. "If I ever come back, I will save you guys." Making that promise made me feel a little better, but being around this guy made me feel all kinds of scared. "Wish I could change 'if' to 'when'."


End file.
